Nature attacked my VX

So my wife was going about 35 through Malibu Canyon in the dark the other night when a large buck deer jumped in front of the VX. She swerved and avoided an head-on but made contact on the passenger side of the car.

The animal's antlers smacked down on top of the hood leaving a large dent as if someone had whacked it with a hammer. And now I notice that the hood has shifted about a quarter inch to the driver's side -- the headlight has been pushed back about a quarter inch --the fender has moved so that there is a larger gap between it and the cladding -- and the gap between the fender and the part around the door is larger.

In other words the metal on the passenger side has been pushed back slightly.

I took it into the local body shop and the guy tells me that I need a new hood, a new light and a new "bumper." I think the guy's full of crap but I'm no expert so I'd like some guidance on this. Since the cladding is not metal I doubt it's bent. And I suspect that what needs to be done is the fender and headlight need to be adjusted back to their original position -- if that's possible.

The insurance will pay for whatever is done so it's not a matter of cost. I just don't have much faith in their ability to actually get the parts in a reasonable period of time.

Any thoughts on this? Thanks.

PS Anyone had body work done by a shop in the Santa Monica area that you felt was done properly?

Did the paint in the dent in the hood get damaged? If not, a paintless dent repair person may be able to get it back to looking close to new rather than buying an entire new hood. It may be easier to fix than other body panels repaired with the procedure too since getting interior access to the damaged area wouldn't be as difficult.

If none of the other panels were damaged (dented, paint scraped off, etc.) then I'd agree with your assessment that everything just needs to be realigned. And, even if any of the other panels DID get dented, a paintless dent repair person may be able to take care of them too.

Car dealerships use paintless dent repair all the time around here, so if you don't find any actual listings in the Yellow Pages, a few calls to local dealerships may get you a contact number

And don't tell anyone this, but after I got a similar contact number from one of my local dealerships after they said that I could have the work done in their shop, the paintless dent repair guy and I just made an arrangement on the side and cut out the middle man. ;)

Sorry to hear about the deer encounter. I've had a few of those myself. Did you at least end up getting any deer steaks for your troubles? :drool2:

The paint is chipped on the hood only.

Thanks for the reply. And no steaks. The deer disappeared into the darkness -- probably with a hell of a headache.










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DK, you might try contacting the pic 'n' pull in this tread (2nd post). Might find the parts you need and they are fairly local. Good luck.

For the unfortunate incident DK.

I got an idea for you.

Since deers hangs around the yard pretty often you may want to diguise the VX as a lion with some customs.

Anyways hope you get the horse back in business very soon :)

i heard if you get a set of the dear horns it might help....I try to get a set on a dear on time ..it was hard as hell to do ..the dear kept kicking me and tryied to bite me till i got the 2 sided sticky to stick on there head.... and when it ran away ..I didnt hear a sound .. but some people think it helps //so the next time you in the woods ..you better listen very close for the sound of dear coming and get out of there way....I hope that helps.:)

The irony is that my wife hates to drive my VX because she's afraid something will happen to it with her behind the wheel. But her Rodeo was in the shop so she had my car for the first time in months. The Rodeo has a heavy duty brush guard in front which may have absorbed some of the impact. Must be car karma.

Or CAR-ma.:bgwb:

Sorry....just had to "say" it.